Drowning
by libretta.b
Summary: Annie Cresta. The 70th Hunger Games. Victor. Love. A broken mind. A story. Her story.
1. Chapter 1

He loves me. He loves me not_. I repeated to myself, staring at him and pulling the petals off the pink Dianthus in my hand. I ran out of petals on _he loves me not_ and discarded the naked flower to the sand._

"_Hey!" I heard a voice. It was his. Standing waist deep in water with a small group of boys he held a trident full of fish and ushered me towards the water. Of course I eagerly obliged, almost forgetting the net I had for him lying net to me. _

_My toes hit the cold water and I hesitated. I wasn't allowed to get my new white dress wet so I only stepped in a few inches before I decided I shouldn't go any further, rolling his eyes he waded out to meet me. He was so handsome, bronze hair and tanned skin with such beautiful sea-green eyes. I was mesmerised._

_He cleared his throat and I snapped back to attention, he expectantly held his hand out for the net and I blushed scarlet._

"_H-here you go." I passed him the net, our hands touching for a brief second. I turned even redder._

"_Thanks." He grinned._

"_N-no problem Finnick." I stuttered quietly. _

_There was a short pause._

"_Bye." I said quickly, turned on my heel and stalked back to the beach, mentally slapping myself for acting like such an idiot._

"_Finnick and Annie, sittin' n a tree." The other boys taunted and laughed from the water, I had never felt so humiliated._

"_Leave it guys, she's just a kid." Finnick spoke calmly and made his way back into the water._

_With tears gathering in my eyes I grabbed my towel from the sand and ran back home because there was no way that I was going to let him see me cry. _

_That was the first and last moment I spoke to him._

_That was the moment when I knew that he definitely did love me not._

Ten Years Later

I tied my curly dark brown hair into a very tight ponytail and tried to smile at my reflection, but my smile was weak and my green eyes showed no sign of happiness what so ever. I was dressed in the same dress that I always wore to the Reaping, a loose and pale blue dress that went down to my knees, with baby pink shell embroidery on the chest and sleeves and on my feet were just simple brown brogues and pale pink socks.

"You look lovely darling." I looked through the mirror and saw my parents standing at the doorway, gripping tightly to one another for support. I was their only child, and seeing me go to the Reaping each year must have been horrible for them, considering that that year I was only sixteen. I smiled at them in the attempt to make them feel better.

"Don't worry, I have two years left and then I'm finished." This seemed to cheer them up slightly, which made me feel better too.

The bell rang in the distance and I knew that it was time to go. I ran up to my parents and held them in a tight embrace. I let go and a tear ran down my mothers face.

"We will have dinner when you come back from the Reaping." My mother said, her voice breaking.

"With extra seaweed. Just like you like it." My father added for reassurance and slipped an arm around my mother's waist. I nodded with reply and we left our home, taking one final glance at it, in case I would never see it again.

After signing in we all stood in neat groups, with the Justice Building and screen ahead of us. A very brightly dressed woman named Lola Clementine stood before us. She bore a purple floral dress with a yellow wig and an eager smile consuming her face.

Along with her on the stage are the Mayor and the previous Victors, two middle-aged men and an older woman and two empty chairs, one next to the old woman and one where the Mayor's daughter would have been sitting. They all wore sad expressions and it almost made me mad at them, it was all over for them but was still happening for us.

"Happy Hunger Games. And may the odds ever be in your favour."

There was a brief pause.

"Welcome to the 70th Hunger Games Reaping!" She spoke proudly, clapping her hands. Everyone else was deadly silent; she was definitely thrown by that.

Lola cleared her throat. "Well, I guess now it is time for a special film."

More silence.

"From the Capitol." Lola added to make it sound like it actually meant something to us. She nodded her head to the screen, and images started to appear.

After watching a dull propaganda film about the revolution it was finally time for the Reaping to begin.

"Oh I wish I could watch that again." Obviously she was lying, no one could watch that more than once without being drawn to boredom. "Well now that thrilling part is over," Lola spoke grinned brightly. "It is now time to choose a female to represent District Four in this years Hunger Games." Lola pranced towards the bowl in the left and shuffled her hand around in the glass bowl for a good minute before pulling out a name.

A folded piece in hand she made her way to the microphone again, cleared her throat and spoke out a familiar name.

"Annie Cresta."

My entire world froze and I went numb.

_Someone please volunteer!_

"Where are you dear?" Lola got on her toes and looked out towards the crowd.

_Anyone!_

The girls parted in front of me and someone from behind was pushing me forward. I had no choice but to walk.

_Please!_

"There you are dearest." Lola spoke brightly to me and ushered me up the steps.

The clicking of my shoes on the concrete sent shivers up my spine and I didn't want to look up in fear that I would break down in front of my entire District. It was very difficult for me to hide my face due to my tight pony tail so I just kept my attention down to my shoes, stealing glances at my mother crying in my fathers arms.

"Are there any volunteers?" Lola said and looked around the girls.

I looked too, pleading silently to them and only getting blank expressions. I recognized more than a few girls that just lowered their heads down to the ground. I couldn't blame them; I would have done the same.

"Now for the gentlemen." Lola spoke in what seemed like forever, and she did the same for the boys.

The cameras tried to get a nice view of my face but I was too nervous to look back and just kept staring at my shoes, waiting for the next damned soul.

"I volunteer!" A boy dressed in a cotton white shirt and dark blue trousers shouted before Lola could pull out a name.

I looked up for the first time and immediately knew the reason why he volunteered. He was around six foot with pale golden hair and piercing clear blue eyes, not to mention that he was completely chiselled. District Four was considered a career district but not as many people volunteered here as they did in Districts One and Two.

Unlike me, he pushed his way through the others and strode confidently up the steps of the Justice Building. That was the moment when I knew that he wasn't a damned soul, but a victor.

"What is your name sir?" Lola asked, with a hint of mischievous flirting in her voice.

"Rio Ellwitt." He replied confidently looking over the crowd, almost like he owned the place. He towered five inches above me and looked about eighteen and I guessed that since this was his last chance to be apart of the Hunger Games he decided to volunteer, it seemed so crazy to me.

With a sigh the deafeated looking Mayor rose out of his chair and replaced Lola at the microphone and began to read the Treaty of Treason, mandatory at the Reapings. It was long, dull and had heard it four times already. But I kept on listening because hearing it one last time couldn't hurt.

A delicate hand was placed on my back and I turned to find Lola ushering Rio and me together.

"Come on you two, shake hands." We did as we were asked, his handshake was firm and his eyes were unwavering on mine.

That was the moment when I knew that I was going to die.

I was staring out the window when my parents barged into the cold and dark holding room. I ran up to them, holding them tighter than I ever had before. I tried so hard not to cry.

When I pulled away, my mother's cheeks were wet with tears and my father held out a small piece of net in my face.

"What's this?" I asked taking the gift carefully in my hands.

"It's the first knot you ever tied when you were three." My father spoke, his eyes shiny with oppressed tears. He gave a weak laugh. "You learned how to tie nets before your own shoes." My father pressed his lips together, trying himself not to cry.

_Did he know that I was going to die too?_

With shaky hands my mother took the net from my hand and fashioned it into a bracelet. "Please accept this as your token."

"Of course, mom." I smiled a fake smile and we all embraced one more time.

"Times up!" A Peacekeeper called from the door signalling my parents to leave.

"I love you." I whispered to them.

"We love you too. So much." My mother whispered back and gently kissed my cheek.

The door closed and everything except my rapid heartbeat was quiet. And everything except the lone tear trickling down my face was still.


	2. Chapter 2

The train to the Capitol was pristine and sleek, gliding on the tracks like a bird through air. It was quiet and effortless at two hundred miles an hour.

Dinner was an impressive feast of succulent meat from District 10 and fresh vegetables from District 11. Rio devoured it like a bloodthirsty animal to probably feed his bulking muscles, Lola barely pecked at it to probably keep her slim waist whilst I ate as much as I could until I felt like I couldn't eat anymore, I wanted to enjoy the time that I had left.

The interior of the Social Cart was just as impressive. Grey spotless paint decorated the walls with cakes and sweets on silver trays and leather chairs around the car. There was even a bar stocked full of beverages, but I wasn't in the mood for drinking.

Everything was quiet. I untied and tied the knot in my hands again and again to calm my nerves, whilst Rio just silently studied at the scenery outside of the window. Lola left us a few minutes earlier so that we could talk to our mentors for the first time, I was nervous to meet them. From the moment my named was called out I was nervous about everything.

The odd sound of the sliding doors opened and I brought my attention upwards. The old woman victor from the hobbled into the room dressed in a comfortable navy blue dress with a sea green eyed man behind her, dressed in expensive looking brown trousers and a white linen shirt that exposed most of his chest. I gazed with shock, believing it couldn't be him.

_Finnick Odair._

I gripped so tightly onto the net in my hands that my knuckles turned white. He was so much more handsome than I last saw him five years ago, after he won the 65th Hunger Games.

"_Annie, please got to bed. You have been watching the Games twenty-four hours straight." My mother said from the doorway of the living room. _

"_Just five more minutes." I yawned, not tearing my eyes away from the screen. _

_Even with all of the blood and death I couldn't stop worrying about Finnick. About him not coming back home to his family, and me never seeing him again. I shouted at him to 'watch out' when another tribute was going in for the kill. But of course he got there first every time, and every time I let out a sigh of relief._

In front of us on the two opposite chairs our mentors sat. Mags in front on me, and Finnick in front of Rio. Mags smiled brightly at me and I nervously back. I quickly glanced over to Finnick, who seemed to be looking at me too. He gave a smug grin and looked back to Rio. I guessed that he didn't remember me.

"You volunteered huh?" Finnick said crossing his arms at Rio.

"Yes I did." Rio answered, as confident as ever.

"Biggest mistake of your life."

Silence.

"Finnick. Please." Mags spoke sternly and glared at Finnick, who seemed to be unnerved by her harsh tone.

I didn't expect him to act like this, but like everyone else, I had heard all about his decadent attitude and the rumours. Everyone loved Finnick, and I especially mean the ladies_. _Finnick was the youngest tribute ever at fourteen to win the Hunger Games, which seemed to impress the Capitol. Everyone back home called him the 'Sex Siren of District Four' for obvious reasons that I didn't want to believe. I tried so hard not to believe. Now I knew that all of it was true.

"We will give you the tools but you have to do it on your own." Finnick said, "Or in an alliance if you so wish, but getting sponsors is the most important thing you could want."

"I thought survival was the most important." I spoke meekly and all eyes turned to me. I looked back at Finnick and he smirked.

"Sponsors are the key to survival. They give you the necessities, like water, food and weapons."

"Just like you?" I asked. Finnick looked impressed with a cocked eyebrow and my cheeks burned slightly.

"Yes. Just. Like. Me." Finnick got a trident from the sponsors, probably one of the most expensive gifts that any tribute had gotten in the Games. The tool to his victory and the many murders of others.

"It doesn't matter if you are shy, insecure or faint at the sight of blood, giving them a show is all that matters," Finnick pointed a finger at us.

"How do we get sponsors then?" Rio asked leaning towards Finnick.

"It's easier for some than others." Finnick answered. "But I bet a big, strong and confident guy like you can put on an admirable show for them." He mocked and Rio slouched back into his seat looking only slightly deflated by his comment.

Next Finnick turned to me and was silent too many moments for my liking, eyeing me up and down. I crossed my arms over my body self-consciously in response and fiddled with the net in my hand, avoiding his gaze. Finnick chuckled at this.

"If you can't stand only _me_ looking at you like a meal then I don't know how you'll survive all of the sponsors, or especially the other tributes."

"Finnick. Enough!" Mags' voice rose to a slight yell, and this time Finnick reacted, looking slightly annoyed about it.

"Look. Annie, isn't it?"

I gave a sad nod.

"As soon as you step off that pedestal the sponsors own you. Just remember that." I was stunned and confused by his final comment, but before I could ask anymore Finnick rose out of his seat and patted down his shirt. "Now, if you'll excuse me I have some…business to attend to." He took one last short look at me and exited the way he came.

My heart constricted at the thought of what he might of meant by 'business'. I sighed.

"I am so sorry about him." Mags reassured with sympathy in her eyes. "After the Games, it now takes him a bit of time to warm up to people."

_I severely doubt he doesn't._

For an hour Mags ran through the most important tips of survival. Finding high ground and water, making shelter and so forth. It was so much information at once and I kept on imagining the worst-case scenario for everything that could possibly go wrong. It was all too much.

"I need to go lie down." I rose shakily out of my seat and gave a shaky smile to Mags. "Thank you for all the information. It was very helpful." I exited through opposite way that Finnick left, towards my own room.

No wonder Finnick wasn't at the Reaping. He was 'busy' with the Mayor's daughter.

I pulled my hair back into a messy bun and entered the food car. Lola was fixing her now green makeup. Mags and Finnick were eating on their own with Mags on his left and Finnick sitting at the head. To my surprise he was actually smiling a real boyish smile and was very engaged in conversation with her. It made him look younger and it was actually nice to see him genuinely happy.

"Good morning." Mags smiled brightly to me as I sat down at the mahogany table.

"Morning," I say not as cheerfully to them.

Before I even looked at the food Mags had already passed me a plate of eggs, sausages and beans. I stared at it confusingly.

"Nutrition is very important for muscle growth and energy." Mags smiled at me.

"Thank you." I gave a genuine smile to her and timidly began to eat.

"What weapon do you use?" Finnick asked staring at me in the eyes.

"Excuse me?"

He couldn't repeat himself because at that moment Rio strode in. Stretching his very muscular arms.

"Good morning all." He smiled brightly sitting down, and stole a muffin from the silver tray.

"What weapon do you use?" Finnick asked again to Rio this time.

Rio smirked obnoxiously. "Spear. Trident. Whatever I can get my hands on I guess." He shrugged and took a bite out of the muffin.

"What did you say again?" Finnick turned his attention back to me and rested his elbows on the table. I stared down at my food and kept on eating.

"Well?" He asked a bit more impatiently this time.

"I don't know." I admitted honestly. Finnick did not look impressed, in fact he looked disappointed.

Unlike most people who were trained to use weapons, I wasn't. My parents didn't believe that I would need to because they thought that there would be no chance of me getting reaped. They were so very wrong. Though one time when I was eleven, my father did try to take me fishing and I actually managed to spear a fish. It was still alive and wriggling on the blade with thick crimson blood gushing down onto my hand. I screamed with horror, dropped the spear, ran out of the water and I only started crying when I was alone in my room. That was the last time I went fishing.

"Oh come on. There must be one thing." Finnick spoke louder and firmer, knocking a knife off the table. Almost instinctively I grabbed it in mid-air by the handle and placed it back on the table.

Everything was quiet for a moment.

"That was…something." Mags smiled, Rio looked almost jealous and I couldn't read Finnick's expression. Due to tying knots for three quarters of my life I was pretty good with my hands and my fast reflexes just came naturally.

"My advice is to use knives." Finnick grabbed the knife I saved and started spreading some butter on his toast.

"We're here." Lola sang, looking out of the window to the Capitol.

Following Rio I rose out of my seat and made my way towards the window. I stood on my toes and looked outwards. The Capitol was even more magnificent and grander in person, with tall buildings that fractured the perfect blue sky, the lights from the bright reflective city shined in my eyes and I turned away for a moment. But in that moment I saw Mags and Finnick still seated at the table. She was holding his hand that was clenched into a fist and looked sympathetically into his eyes. Finnick was looking down at the table with a painful expression on his face. It was heart breaking to look at.

I turned back to the window and this time all I saw was a swarm of colourful people, dressed like wannabe Lola's, they clapped and cheered at us and I smiled with embarrassment. They seemed to enjoy that and I smiled a little brighter this time, though Rio practically pushed me out of the way and I stumbled backwards. Rio smiled arrogantly to the people, waved and even winked to them. In the corner of my eye I saw Finnick roll his eyes and head towards the door. Mags waved at us to follow, but Rio was too busy and consumed with all of the attention to notice.

"Rio, we're leaving now." I put a hand on his arm.

He snapped back to attention and walked straight past me to the door. I couldn't believe that he was so eager.

Was that all that he wanted? Attention?

_My mother secured my hair into a tight ponytail and tried to smile at me in the mirror._

"_Thank you mom." I smiled reassuringly back at her. _

_Of course she didn't believe my smile. I was scared too. It was the day of my first Reaping, I wore a smaller pale blue floral dress with brown ballet shoes, but my hair was still in a ponytail. I looked down at my shoes during the entire Reaping; I couldn't bear to look up._

_I wasn't reaped that year; it was a girl of fifteen, named Olive Perrin and a twelve-year-old boy from my class called Conch Harksben. _

_I was sad to see him go. And never return._

_I didn't talk a lot when I got home that day and only tied knots to keep me distracted and to hide my nerves, still in shock and relieved that I wasn't reaped. My parents didn't push me to speak and just gave me extra seaweed bread._

The crowds outside were crazy, and Rio was soaking all of it up with pride. I for one felt really awkward and coward from anyone trying to touch me. A large cry from all of the women sounded when Finnick and Mags exited the train, and he seemed to take it as well as Rio did. Finnick smiled, winked, waved and practically everything else to get any woman's affections. Mags decided to smile and wave and nodded at me to do it too. With a deep breath I raised my hand and waved, the sound of the audience got louder as Peacekeepers escorted us towards the city.

**I just want to say that I won't be getting this out very frequently due to being blocked on my boarding school network, but I will be writing in between and posting things together. It's great to be back!**


	3. Chapter 3

Rio and I were taken into the Remake Centre where I have been for two hours, and since District Four is a moderately well off District with decent supplies, my prep Team didn't need to worry about 'remaking' all of me like they had to do with some other Districts.

"All of you District Fours smell like seawater." Charm, a member of my prep Team commented in her weird Capitol accent whilst lathering my hair with some very expensive District One shampoo. Charm wore the brightest red lipstick and eye shadow that I have ever seen, though it complimented well with her kind grey eyes that smiled down at me on the table.

Living by the sea for my entire life has practically made me immune to the smell of seawater. My hair has now become permanently damaged dry from all of the salt that has soaked in to it. She tugged at all of the small knots that had embedded themselves into my scalp. I gritted my teeth and screwed by eyes together from the pain.

"Well at least you don't have her calloused hands and chipped nails." Another member of my prep team, Tercius said rubbing a whole tube of moisturiser into one of my hands. Like Charm his eyes were grey, but he decided to go for a simpler white hair that contrasted well against his dark blue skin with indigo highlights that went down to his shoulders.

"My goodness, deary." Tercius cooed. "What did you to get your hands in such bad condition?" I didn't know if the question was rhetorical but I decided to answer anyway.

"I make nets for a living." I said flatly, with my eyes still screwed up in pain.

"Oh I see." He answered with fake interest now moving on to fix my nails, like tying knots all day wasn't even seen as an optional career to them.

I still went to school, but in my spare time I either went to the beach or helped my mother make the nets for the fisherman. Over the years of tying knots, my hands have turned rough and leathery but still quick and steady in movement.

I also have never bothered to do my nails because they would only become chipped and broken again, but Tercius did a great job in making them look naturally smooth and perfect. Was there anything that the Capitol couldn't do?

"Lita, are you done with her feet?" Charm called to the other side of table. There was no reply. "Lita!" She called again, slightly more firmly this time.

"Y-yes, Charm. I'm sorry."

Lying flat on my back I could only glance my eyes down at the girl at my feet. Lita was the youngest out of the three, looking in her early twenties. Her hair was a plethora of neon colours, with matching lip-gloss and the gold and silver blush and eye shadow that seemed outrageous for any Capitol inhabitant.

"Have you finished with the nails yet?" Tercius asked cocking one of his purple eyebrows.

"A-almost." Lita stuttered in reply.

"Well hurry up! We don't want to keep Azula waiting." Charm cut in finishing up with my hair.

Lita gave a scared, quick nod and got back to doing her work. I had heard them talk about Azula a lot, about what she'd make of my 'gorgeous' brown hair or how last year the District Four female tribute was nearly six foot and how different it would be to work with me; and also a lot of complaining.

A minute later I am stood up and stripped completely naked. I flushed bright red and crossed my arms over my breasts with shame. My hair fell in front of my face and I peaked at Lita in between the strands, she almost looked as embarrassed as I did. I assumed that this was her first time at this as well, whilst Charm and Tercius looked completely unfazed, removing the last bits of hair from my body.

I only imagined what my parents would have thought this they knew about this. My father would be in fits of hysterics and my mother probably wouldn't know what to think.

With a clap of Charm's hands the other two removed themselves from my body and stood silently by my side. A pair of smooth hands gripped onto my arms and I glanced my eyes up to Charm's face. Once again her eyes were kind as she tucked my wet hair behind one of my ears but left my arms around my chest. I respected her more for doing that.

"You look beautiful. You don't need to hide it." Charm smiled to me.

I smiled back and mouth a small 'thank you', which seemed to make her smile a lot bigger. Charm looked around forty, which meant that she was just a tad younger than my own mother. Through the thick layer of made up fakery I saw my own mother in her eyes and bit my lip to hide back tears. Charm nodded to me again and made her way to the exit, the other two following like puppies.

The room was so white and clean that it made my stomach churn. All attention would be on my naked body; a thought that I wish that I had never thought of.

A few moments later a harsh looking angular faced Asian woman with cyan hair walked in and trained her eyes on my face. With no introductions Azula began to stalk her way around my body, mumbling notes to herself like 'thin', 'weak chin' and 'tanned', the last being normal for anyone of District Four.

She occasionally lifted up my arm that I reluctantly removed from my body for her to inspect or she twirled my hair in her hand. Though when she got to my hands an expression of disgust crossed her face and raised her dark eyes at me.

"A net maker I presume?" Her tone was flat and sounded almost expectant.

"Yes ma'am." I answered trying to sound polite.

A small smile blinked onto her face. "No need for formalities dear, you can just call me Azula." Her eyes went back to my hand. "I have been a designer for District Four for seven years and I have never seen hands so calloused." She sighed. "I guess gloves will have to do."

Azula let go of my hand and threw the robe over to me. She beckoned me with a finger to follow her into the next room. I was more than happy to slip the robe back onto my body and I followed her. The room was nicely lit that overlooked the Capitol; it had comfortable looking blue leather sofas that were facing each other in the centre with a bare table in between us. Azula quickly scribbled something onto a hologram of a dress that sat on the table and I tried not to look and sat opposite her. After waiting a few minutes she was done, closed the hologram and pressed a button at the side of the table. Food instantly appeared as the top split open and I raised my eyes, looking impressed. The food was similar to the one on the train, but a lot more like it was made a second before it appeared, at the sight of it my stomach growled.

"I have a few designs to discuss with you."

I pick up my fork and start prodding at a piece of steak on my plate.

"What are they?"

Four hours later I am dressed in a baby blue sleeveless silk dress with multiple shades of blue and green ruffles ornamenting the bottom representing the waves of the sea. The top of the dress is made out of sequins that change from blue to green in certain lights. My lips are teal with exaggerated purple swirls that swamp my face from my eyes that I was told complimented my green eyes and tanned face perfectly. Connected the bottom of the dress is sea through sheer fabric cut into the shape of fins that attach to a ribbon around my wrists that folded out whenever I raised my arms that connected with the matching lace ruffled gloves, used to cover my ugly hands. Rio's outfit was similar, except for a dress he wore a sequined vest and simple but slightly ruffled baby blue shorts with the same idea of the sheer fabric fins, his designer probably wanted to show off as much as Rio as he could to get more sponsors interested in him, but I had no idea what Azula's plan was with me. We both are bare foot to keep the 'authenticity' of people not wearing shoes in a real ocean and even had the same makeup, I didn't mind it very much but Rio seemed slightly anxious about it. A guy like Rio would have looked good with fish skeletons draped around his crotch, I couldn't understand what bothered him so much.

The prep team did their last jobs on us whilst Azula and Rio's designer Ivo, discussed all of the other tributes outfits, trying stifling giggles and pointing like immature children. Especially at District 12 only covered in coal dust. The designers could have all of the fun that they liked; they weren't being sentenced to their deaths.

"Lita!" Charm huffed loudly fiddling with my hair that was in a tight bun, which seemed to bring the designers back to us. "Damn it! She tied the knot too tight with her stupid stubby fingers." Charm kept on tugging at it but it wasn't budging.

"I can do it." I said reaching back behind my head.

"Don't you dare!"Azula gasped and I snapped my hands back down by my sides. "The fabric doesn't stretch that far. It'll rip."

"I can do it." I turned to see Finnick with one of Mags' arms looped through his, wearing a confident smile.

"I'd thought you'd be busy Odair." Rio said, "All the rich women are outside."

I couldn't believe what he had said. I was expecting Finnick to rip out his throat but he gave a smug smile.

"I am here by order Ellwitt. It's mandatory for mentors to be with their tributes before the Parade." He unhooked himself from Mags and strode over to me, every step closer he got, my heartbeat got quicker. He is inches from me and I just stare at his beautiful face, the soft curve of his lips for what seemed like forever until he cleared his throat ushering me to turn around.

I turn around and wait for his hands to attack my hair. It was not what I expected; his hands are soft and gentle. It was he _real _way to untie knots, I tried not to turn red with the thoughts of _Finnick Odair _with his hands in my hair.

It only took him a few moments before my brown curly hair cascading freely down my back, and I even thought that I heard Finnick suck in a breath. I take a look over my shoulder but his expression was the same as before. I must have been imagining it.

"Thanks." I smiled nervously at him, and to my surprise he seemed to return it.

A few feet away I saw the other Careers giggling at me and whispering together. Like Rio, the boys were muscular, both having pale brown hair whilst the two girls looked nothing like me. They were both tall flawless porcelain dolls with bright crimson and ice blond hair, and they were glaring at me in return.

Finnick seemed to see too and just cleared his throat and changed his smile into a smug one. "Any fool could have done it. I just happened to be here. No offence Charm." But she just rolled her eyes at him and fluffed up my hair a little more until the music started playing and the doors started opening.

"Time to mount up kids." Finnick said, "Smile. Wave. Whatever you want to get the sponsors to favour you above everyone else." He shrugged and waved his hand in a dismissive manner at us. "Have fun." He added sarcastically for good measure but is quietly chastised by Mags.

I chose to ignore it and stand in the chariot with Rio standing on my left. Our chariot finally moves and proceeds out of the doors. The crowd started to erupt at the sight of us and I raised my arm to wave with the fin waving in the breeze, Rio did the same and the crowd responded again.

I spotted us in the large television screen and I gave a reassuring smile to my parents back home, signalling to them at I was okay.

I suddenly get a burst of confidence and start blowing kisses at a few individuals whilst Rio just flexes his muscles in the most obnoxious way possible, and yet it is a big success and the crowd go nuts and actually start calling us by name.

"Go Annie!"

"I love you Rio!"

"Oh my gosh, Rio is so gorgeous."

"Spear me with your trident anytime Rio!" Okay that was just said…

I didn't really mind that people were cheering more for Rio than they were for me because I was hoping that people would associate us together and sponsor us both.

Finally at the City Circle at the front of President Snow's mansion, everything turned deadly silent as the music and the chariots grinded to a halt. , At one point during his welcoming speech from the balcony above, the screen on the television cut to us and Rio gave a cheeky wink to the camera and the crowd went crazy again. I thought that it was some felony to interrupt the President so I just kept my gaze steady and up at him.

The doors closed and we were once again consumed with our prep teams, singing our praises about how well the crowds responded to us, but I knew that they mostly meant Rio. All of the other tributes were around us as well, but I was coming down from such an adrenaline rush that I started to shake.

I couldn't believe that I actually enjoyed one of the events leading up to my eminent death. But the show wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.

**Please review. More coming soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

To be honest, I thought that we were done with Lola Clementine after she escorted us to the Capitol, but I was wrong. Along with Mags and Finnick, stayed with us throughout the entire training period.

After the Parade, all tributes were escorted to the Training Centre, the tallest buildings in the Capitol located behind President Snow's mansion. Each District had their own floor based on their number, so the journey to our apartment didn't take very long using the elevator. Lola hurried and shuffled me and Rio into an elevator with her whilst the designers travelled with their respective prep teams, Mags rode with Azula and my prep team due to Finnick's absence. I guessed that he couldn't wait to be rid of us and do what he really wanted to do whilst visiting the Capitol, it made my heart turn to cold and sink to the bottom of my stomach like a stone in the ocean.

The elevator ride was slightly awkward. With Rio and me standing to the sides and Lola standing in the middle, not taking her eyes off Rio, praising him for his show during the Parade.

"The muscle flexing was pure _genius_!" Lola commented holding onto his chiselled arm. Rio seemed to enjoy it whilst I stayed silent and just watched. Lola was wearing the same outfit that she wore on the train. She wore a cream coloured bouffant gown, imprinted with lace and vibrant pink ribbons. Her hair was in curly silver pigtails with matching makeup and vibrant pink false eyelashes. If I had to guess, I would say that she was maybe mid-twenties, though the overpowering smell of lavender perfume was slightly off putting. I couldn't imagine that her job was very exciting, read names, escort them and if they lose, do it all again, flirting was probably a way for her to make her job bearable and put a genuine smile on her face, rather than a compulsory fake one. She probably couldn't be like Finnick and go off as she pleased and seek the company of any rich Capitol inhabitant that she wanted.

_I couldn't stop myself from smiling when Finnick was crowned the winter of the 65__th__ Hunger Games, however it was removed when he was interviewed by__Caesar Flickerman at the Capitol, where a beautiful blonde woman was draped on his arm, beaming like the luckiest woman in the world. I gazed with shock at how seemingly happy he looked too._ _From that moment I tried hard not to watch his further exploits and interviews and made more nets than I ever had in my life. It worked for a few months but I couldn't stop watching. It was completely delusional but I couldn't stop._

My room was more extravagant than I would have ever imagined, everything had a certain expensive glow about them with soft edges and surfaces that looked more than inviting to sit on. Just like the Capitol buildings, my bathroom had a sterile clean and modern design with more buttons and knobs for things that I had no idea what to do with. I simply cleaned myself of the excess amount of makeup on my face and programmed my wardrobe to give me a simple outfit of a green tank top and black trousers; I have never really been a big fan of shoes.

When I walked in to the Dining Room, Azula and Ivo sat with their heads bent over another hologram sketchpad, her brow furrowed in concentration, probably discussing matching outfit ideas for the interview. On the other end of the table, Mags held a napkin up to Rio's face to remove a little spot of blue makeup that he had missed. Rio didn't look very pleased but I couldn't help but smile at them. To me, he looked like a small child being babied by his grandmother; I thought it was kind of cute. And Finnick was nowhere in sight.

For dinner we are given an old Distrcit Four delicacy, Marinated Swordfish with lemon sauce and salad. It was too expensive to buy on a daily basis but I would always have it on my parent's anniversary. The food was delicious and the silent servants of our apartment constantly offered wine to us, every time I refused and they just disappeared back to the corner of the room, awaiting more orders. Mags called them Avoxes, people that committed crimes harsh enough against the laws of Panem to get their tongues cut out. The thought is barbaric to me and suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore, but Rio just carried on eating like it was not shocking to him. Finnick didn't turn up for dinner either.

Later that night I couldn't sleep. It was just too still and the double bed was too large for me. I drank three glasses of milk with no prevail to put my mind at ease about the three day training sessions ahead, I thought that a walk would clear my head. The air of the apartment was still as I tiptoed quietly around the halls and sat in the main living area. I kept all of the lights low except for a small side lamp that I used for me to see the different knots that I was tying and untying to help me calm my nerves. Ten minutes passed and I didn't feel any better than before, but that was when I heard the footsteps.

Finnick strode into the hall, and unlike me, it was almost like he was trying to wake everyone up. His green eyes took a glance at the light, then at me and practically jumped right out of his skin.

"Annie!" He sounded surprised to see me. His shirt was crinkled, with it tucked carelessly into his trousers and his bronze hair was dishevelled. I didn't want to think about what he was doing for all that time.

"W-what are you doing up so late?" He asked, obviously confused and slightly embarrassed that I caught him coming back. But I decided not to question him on it.

"I couldn't sleep." I answered, focusing my concentration back onto my knot tying, however he just kept on staring at me with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Wait here." He disappeared around down the hall and came back a moment later with a small black oval shaped stone object in his hand. 'Here," He said placing it into my hands, making me drop the rope in my lap. I had no idea what to do and stared at it like an idiot. He chuckled slightly and tapped the top of it. A silver thumbprint was left behind and slowly faded away as the familiar sounds of the ocean started playing. My eyes glowed with happiness and a smile eased onto both of our faces.

"Where did you get this?" I asked looking away from the stone into Finnick's eyes. He shrugged and came to sit down next to me. In the small amount of light, I could see the dark rings below his eyes and the creases in his forehead, but his sea-green eyes didn't lose their bright colour. It made him look so much older than nineteen. But I guessed that that was what the Games did to people.

"Mags gave it to me when I was a tribute." He gave a short laugh but then frowned. "I know that you used to-I mean you live near the ocean. Suddenly not listening to it at night kind of threw off my sleep pattern too."

"Did you use this as your token?"

"That would have been the perfect way to die." He smiled smugly, but based on my blank expression he stopped and reached into his shirt, pulling out a necklace. It was a black thread necklace with a piece of emerald green sea glass attached to it.

"Who gave you that?"

"It's not important." He shrugged and looked down to my lap. "Is that yours?"

I looked down at the net and nodded shyly, picking it up in my hands, knotting and unknotting it again.

"Why do you always do that?" He asked curiously nodding his head to the net. "I mean I know that you tied-uh tie nets for a living but…why do you always do it?"

"It help calms my nerves and keeps my mind occupied from bad things." My answer was quite plain and simple but Finnick replied with a thoughtful expression.

"I should probably try that sometime."

There was more than just a moment of us being silent, apart from the sound of the ocean.

That answer confused me slightly because he was a Victor. He had all that he could ever want, money, jewels, women, love and a certain future. At that moment I had nothing going for me apart from a _four per cent _chance of being alive at the end of the week. The thought made me shake and want to block everything out my covering my ears with my hands. I also thought that I was going to start crying. I tapped the stone again and we were both left in official silence.

"Thanks for the um-"

_What was it? A gift? I had no idea._

"The you know. It was very thoughtful of you. I think I am going to turn in for the night." I stood back up and went to turn out the light.

"Can you leave it on?" I turned to Finnick and was surprised by the vulnerable tone of his voice and the sullen look on his face that he gave me from under his eyebrows. My heart restricted slightly.

"Um, sure." I retracted my hand from the light and stalked to the door. I turned back to see Finnick with his elbows on his knees with his face in his hands. All that I wanted to do was rush back and collect him in my arms and put him back together, but I had no idea what needed fixing.

"Goodnight, Finnick."

He rubbed his face with his hands and looked back at me, a pathetic fake smile on his face.

"Goodnight, Annie."

I smiled back and walked to my room. Once in bed I tapped the stone and with the sound of crashing waves in the background I slowly drifted to sleep, a tearstain soaking into my pillow.


	5. Chapter 5

_The water is cold and merciless. It strangles my lungs and stings my eyes as I sink lower into darkness and I am unable to move, I gaze in weird wonder as the water silks it's way through my hands, sending blood tingling shivers up my spine. _

_Above the water a pair of sea-green eyes stare down at me and I recognize them immediately, I breathe in to gasp but the water gives me an unwelcomed kiss, leaving no dry space. I try to move but I continue sinking, pleading with my eyes for him to save me, but he just stands and stares. _

_Can't he see that I am drowning?_

I gasped and bolted myself into a sitting position, rubbing my hands over by body to check if it was dry. It was, apart from my face that was wet with tears as was my pillow and as my breathing slowed I tried to recollect where I was. At first I thought that I was at home because of the sound of the ocean, but I realised that it was Finnick's stone that was still making the noise. I peered out of the window and I guessed that it was just passed dawn, I turned the stone off and flipped my pillow over to hide the wet side, hopped out of bed and headed to the bathroom. I turn my shower to boiling hot to rid my head of the nightmare of the night before; I had never had a nightmare about the ocean or even dreamt about Finnick. I just had to clear my head, and a scolding shower perfect for that.

I walked into the dining hall, rubbing my eyes and salivating from the smell of the delicious food. I was served my breakfast by a female Avox of porridge, syrup and chocolate chips and sat down next to Rio on the large table. Once again we were wearing the same outfits for training, black lycra leggings with a gold stripe down the side, a plain black cotton t-shirt with a large gold number four on the back and black combat boots. The boys didn't notice me as I sat down because they were too busy demonstrating the best techniques to stab someone with a spear or trident and practicing on each other with spoons. He seemed to be in a much better mood than last night.

"Boys." I heard a kind voice say next to me as Mags sat opposite me, her plate full of fruit.

I laughed as a reply. "Yeah I know."

With one final jab from Finnick in Rio's stomach the boys laughed and went back to their eating. Finnick greeted Mags good morning and also spotted me in the process.

"Morning Annie." Finnick said in a slightly deflated manner.

"Morning Finnick." I tried to say with the same lack of enthusiasm as he did to me, but I couldn't stop smiling looking at his eyes. I was completely fooling myself. I would just be a 70th Hunger Games tribute to him, and a dead one at that.

"How did you sleep last night?" He asked.

"Good thank you." I replied and went back to my food.

"Good." I heard him say, but in front of me I saw Mags with a mischievous smile on her face.

_Why?_

"Annie I-" Finnick tried to continue.

"So Finnick. Annie and I have come up with a plan of action."

_What?_

"Really?" The rest of us said together and I felt a slight kick under the table.

"Well, we would train separately. I would have Finnick and Annie would have Mags." Rio paused to stuff a piece of muffin in his mouth and we all looked at his thoughtfully. "Finnick can teach me the best fighting strategies whilst Mags can teach any about fish hooks and stuff."

"Fish hooks and stuff?" Mags asked in quite a negative tone.

"Well, that means that we can ally together and survive until the end."

"What about during training at the centre?" Finnick asked.

"Roughly the same plan. Apart from the compulsory exercises of course." Rio smiled smugly, obviously pleased with his plan.

"I think it would be best if Annie learned a skill. One to show the sponsors." Mags said.

"Yeah, and what if we get split up? I'd have to defend myself before we find each other again." I said.

"She's got a point Rio." Finnick said jabbing at a sausage with his fork. "It's a clever concept but you should learn some survival skills too. It could be the difference between life and death."

"Or I could just be like you and score high in the private training sessions, impress the sponsors, get supplies, kill people and live in paradise."

"Well, if it's paradise you're looking for, you should get the hell out of Panem." Finnick replied bluntly, getting out of his chair and walking away. Mags sighed, excused herself and took off after him, leaving Rio and me in silence.

"What d'you think Annie?" I turned to Rio and I saw the excitement in his eyes. There was so much to consider, you could tell that he probably a great fighter just by looking at him, but he was also quite arrogant I guessed the type to rush into things without thinking. And there was no way that I would be able to survive on my own, the tributes were already laughing at me.

_What the hell. It's not like I'm going to win anyway._

"Let's do it." I agreed and we shook hands. "But I will at least learn one skill…to defend myself."

"Deal." Rio grinned, and I smiled back.

We got down to the training area at 9:45 where most of the tributes were already; they were wearing the same thing as us, except with their own tribute numbers on the back. There were a few stragglers but Districts One and Two were sticking together, obviously their alliance was formed instantly. I felt a nudge at my elbow; it was Rio, glaring at the Careers.

"We don't need them Annie. They all just turn on each other in the end anyway."

_Isn't that what we're going to do if we are the last two?_

I just nodded and leaned up against the wall, waiting for all of the other tributes to show up. When they did we all joined together in a circle, the head trainer Kellis began talking to us about our training methods. I didn't listen because I was too busy glancing between the other tributes, and they were all doing the same, no one took more of a second to look at me, except for the other Careers who I believed were imagining the ways that they were going to kill me. When I caught eyes with the crimson haired girl I turned my attention to the ground, letting my messy hair fall in my face. I didn't bother tying my hair up, it wasn't like I was expecting to do much anyway.

The two training days were a blur. Apart from the compulsory exercises I mainly focused on learning how to identify berries and making snares and shelters, sometimes Rio joined me, but most of the time he was training and fighting with one of the training staff. I hardly noticed the Gamemakers when they came and they mostly focused on the other Careers and Rio, showing off to try and scare the other tributes; which actually worked because they stayed out of their way. I went to the knife throwing station and learnt how to throw knives, which I was actually better at than Rio. Every time I got one on target a crease would form in his forehead and his throws would get a lot more hectic than before.

"We can't be good at everything and one, Rio." I said when he missed his last target.

"Yeah but everything and two is in the arena, Annie." Rio said with a serious expression on his face.

"That's why us splitting up the skills is easier?"

"Exactly." Rio smiled.

After lunch at the bow and arrow station I thought that I was alone, until the girls from Districts One and Two turned up. The crimson haired one had intense brown eyes and was from District One and called Satin who looked bitchier than the ice blonde one who just looked menacing. She was called Maeve, with pale skin and forest green eyes with. In the video of her Reaping, they zoomed in on her parent's proud faces and they had dark hair and skin so I had to assume that she had albinism. I suspected that they were either seventeen or eighteen.

"Annie right? District Four." Satin asked.

I nodded shyly lowering my bow.

"It's so lucky that you having Finnick Odair as your mentor." Maeve commented and began to giggle along with Satin. It was probably because I was blushing. "We saw the way that you looked at him before the opening ceremony. It was soo cute." She mocked.

"It's such a shame you will never see him again after you leave for the Games. But I guess that you don't see him much due to him always being with his girlfriends." I raised my bow back up and faced the target, facing away from the girls. "Oh you didn't know." Maeve pretended to act shocked.

"Of course I knew." I said bluntly, still with my eyes on the target about to shoot.

"Just don't call out his name when we will kill you. That would just be embarrassing if he is too 'occupied to hear it." That last comment broke my concentration and the arrow went completely off target into the sideboard, which caused the two girls to start laughing again.

"Victor of quickest death in Hunger Games history. Annie Cresta." The two girls laughed again and strutted away.

_Don't let them get to you. Don't let anyone see you cry. _

I wiped my eye wish my shoulder and set up to shoot again. The arrow still went off target. Apparentely shooting wasn't my strength.

At breakfast on the second day of training Finnick and Mags decided for us to have private training sessions right when we get back from the Training Centre and back on the District Four floor, Finnick and Mags were waiting for us, with Mags sitting on a couch and Finnick pacing in the middle of the room. Rio and I looked at each other and shrugged, I tried to take my place with Mags before Finnick placed a hand on my shoulder and stopped me in my tracks.

"Mags thought that it would better if we train together." That was news.

"Oh okay." I said as Finnick lead me out of the room and turned back to see Rio reluctantly sit next to Mags and she raised her eyebrows at me.

The room we were in had low lighting and all of the furniture was pushed to the walls. The room was also linked to a balcony that overlooked the glittering Capitol. I stared out into the horizon, trying to invision District Four.

"No point in trying to escape." Finnick said and I turned back towards him looking confused. "There is a force field set around this entire building." He grinned whilst stretching his arms. "Three tributes tried to run away during the first ever Games." He started to laugh and expected me to laugh too but my face was filled with disgust.

"You think that's funny?" He just shrugged; I knew that it was best just to drop it. "So what are we doing?"

"I'm teaching you how to fight." He said cracking his knuckles.

"I thought you were going to teach Rio."

"But I don't trust him. It's probably just me but you should be prepared."

"I thought it was Mags' idea."

"I never said that I didn't agree with her." He held his hands out with his palms to me with a serious expression. "Hit me."

"What?"

"Come on."

I breathed in deep and threw a wild right punch to his left hand and cracked my knuckles, I gasped and shook my hand from the pain. Finnick raised his eyebrows at me with an expression of disbelief.

"I can't believe we are from the same District." He laughed but his face fell flat the moment I began turning towards the door with tears brimming in my eyes.

"Hey, wait!" He called grabbing my hand, twirling me around to face him. "I'm sorry. You're just…different from the…other girls I know."

_The other girls._

"What do you mean?" I asked. Suddenly his face changed to a shocked expression, like he just processed what he said for the first time and when he saw his hand on mine, he dropped it like it burnt him. Whilst he was distracted I swiped the stray tear away from my eye.

"It doesn't matter." He shook his head and put his hands back up. "Hit me again." I punched his hand again with my left one and it didn't seem to hurt any less. "You need to clench your fist tighter." He said reaching for my hand but quickly drew it away. "S-so it doesn't break when it hits something."

I nodded, followed his instruction and tried again. An hour later I learned how to uppercut and throw hooks and by then I was beat. I stepped out onto the balcony and rubbed my aching hands.

"You okay?" He said appearing next to me with two glasses of ice-cold water, offering one to me.

"Thank you." I said and gently took it from his hand and took a big swig. We both stood in silence as we stared at the setting sun.

"Were you nervous Finnick?'

"Huh?" He said turning to me. "Of what?"

"Of the other tributes. Were you scared of them? Because, you were only fourteen and yet you still managed to kill them. So I was just wondering-"

"Yes." He answered flatly, staring out again. "Most of them didn't mess with me because they were in the same position that I was in or because I was a Career. But some used to glare at me to try and put me off from what I was doing, and sometimes it worked."

"What did you do?"

There was a short pause.

"I killed them. More brutally than the others."

"Oh." I said as my only reply and looked down.

"Hey," He said softly and tilted my head towards him. "I know you aren't a fighter Annie Cresta. But just like with the nets you made back in Four, if you put enough of your heart into something it turns out great. Just remember that in the Arena."

"How do you know about my nets?"

He grinned. "It's not like us fishermen were going to catch fish in our pockets Annie, that's just absurd." He said flashing a pure boyish smile.

"_Annie!" My mother called from the front room of the shop. "Do you have those nets that we made earlier?"  
>"Which ones?" I called back, taking my attention away from the trickiest net that could ever be made, and considering I was only nine it was pretty impressive, even though I had been working on it for three days.<em>

"_The ones with the small holes." I grabbed the box from my left and brought them through and out of the corner of my eye I saw the customers. A well built man with a bushy beard and a kind smile, and next to him was a boy with sea-green eyes. I widened my eyes with fear._

"_Hear you go." I said as I passed my mother the box and disappeared into the back room, not even acknowledging him._

"_She's just shy." Mother said. That wasn't entirely true, I was just shy around him._

I laughed slightly and once again we were silent, with him still holding up my face and both of us staring into each others matching eyes. And just like before he took a look out towards the Capitol and dropped my face, he chugged down the rest of his water and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"We should probably go eat." He said looking away from my face.

"Yeah. Sure." I answered, trying to not look too deflated. From the corner of my eye I saw him look around out of the balcony and shake his head disapprovingly.

_What is up with him?_

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I really like writing a lot more in each chapter than I did with **_**'Really? Really.**_**' I kind made most of it up on the spot and I think that it turned out well. Reviews and criticisms are always deeply appreciated. :) **


	6. Chapter 6

On the final day of training, all of the tributes were being picked off by the Gamemakers to go to their private session and this was the first time that Rio and I talked about the Games rather than just eating in silence.

"I was planning that when the Games begin you run and grab a backpack whilst I grab the weapons and we can go from there." Rio said pointing a District Four roll in my face, the unnerved look of determination and certainty on his face made the plan seem flawless, even though that it was completely insane.

By the time that we agreed, the Gamemakers had just called Speck Chrommel, the District Three girl with copper coloured pigtail braids for her private session. She took a quick look at me but looked away when she noticed Rio. I knew that there was some time to kill, depending on how good she would be.

"Do you have a strategy for your private session?" I asked popping a piece of District Eleven's moon roll in my mouth. Rio flashed a confident smile.

"I guess you will just have to wait for the scores, Cresta."

I sat back in my seat and rolled my eyes. "Oh come _on_." I feign moaned flicking a piece of bread at his face and we both laughed. "It's not like I can copy what you can do anyway." He just shrugged and is confident smile contorted itself into a friendlier one, and I smiled back. I didn't that it was right to call Rio a _friend_, but in my eyes he was more than just an ally, but there is no word in between so I just stuck with ally.

"What are you doing?" He asked, dabbing seaweed crumbs off the table with his fingers. I decided to give him the same treatment and just shrugged.

"Wait for the scores Ellwitt." I smirked and he crossed his arms over his chest.

A minute later his name was called, he took one last glance at me and leapt out of his chair.

"Good luck." I called to him, the corner of his mouth twitched back at me and he strode out of the cafeteria, looking as confident as ever. I guessed that since that he was the only _real _Career left in the cafeteria after all of the others left, he put it on himself to show how much confidence he had in himself to win to scare the other tributes, and it could have worked if anyone was paying attention. But there was still one question that remained.

_What the hell am I going to show them?_

I sat there in my chair, alone for the next fifteen minutes pondering my choices and rubbing my sweaty hands together, working out strategies. If I was to get a high score then the others would see me as a threat and try to kill me first, however if I was to get a low score the sponsors wouldn't see me as worthy for their money and won't send me any gifts. It made me pull my hair in frustration and want to scream my lungs out.

"Annie Cresta." The Gamemaker called and I slowly rose out of my seat, trying but failing to walk out with the same confidence as Rio did. I guessed that my shaky hands gave away how nervous I was.

Before entering the room I sucked in a deep breath and stepped through the door. The Gamemakers sat on a balcony that overlooked the gymnasium. A perk of being in a low number district was that they hadn't had too much to drink at that point, and were still a tad interested in seeing the rest of the tributes. With no plan in mind I tried to look around the gymnasium for inspiration, but the overwhelming number of choices didn't make it any easier, so I unfortunately turned to the Gamemakers. They were all different but exactly the same in the ridiculous outfits that they wore. However, there was this female Gamemaker with gold hair and seriously exaggerated light green makeup. It made me think of Finnick, and thinking of Finnick gave me an idea. I got some thick rope and quickly tied a twitch-up snare that would send its prey into the air, grabbed a surprisingly heavy mannequin and dragged it along the floor. I checked over my shoulders to the Gamemakers and I could tell that they were slowly losing interest and I knew that I had to work faster. With one final push the mannequin was sent into the air by one foot and dangled like a dead animal, I looked over my shoulders and only two were paying attention. I swiped three throwing knives from the table and cut the rope. As the mannequin fell with three swift movements I threw the knives at it. Hitting it every single time. The mannequin broke on the ground with an echoing sound that caught the attention of the Gamemakers that weren't looking. Its limbs were distorted, its head cracked open with knives sticking out of its shoulder, stomach and thigh. They weren't death shots but I was still impressed with myself that I actually hit the thing. With nothing left in my hands and clearly with no other plan they decided to dismiss me. I bowed my head, thanked them and walked out the gymnasium whilst rubbing my sweaty hand on my trousers.

Back at the apartment I walked in on Rio in the living room, giving some sort of demonstration about how he used special sword techniques to Mags, Finnick and Lola but instantly stopped when he saw me standing in the doorway. The other three turned to me and smiled.

"How did it go-o." Lola sang, clapping her excessively jewelled hands. "I want to hear details." Deciding to not be secretive, I sat next to Lola and told them what I did. When I finished I looked around the room for their reactions, Lola thoughtfully nodded, Rio looked deep in concentration and Finnick looked pleased and rubbed a hand over his face.

"That sounds great Annie." Mags replied beaming, it showed your practical and survival skills whilst also showing your fighting skills." I gave a shy but happy smile and Lola nodded her head in agreement, obviously not knowing what I was talking about.

"Too bad you didn't get any kill shots in." Rio added, looking from under his brow and shrugged.

"At least that it's more…original than doing what probably both the District One and Two boys did." Finnick added, staring down Rio who just glared back at him.

"Finnick." Mags said in a hushed but stern tone.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"I think I'm going to lie down for a while." Rio said dully and sullenly exited the room. Mags took one last look at Finnick and followed Rio. Leaving just me, Lola and Finnick, until there was a knock at the door.

"Oh," Lola beamed. "That must be Azula, Ivo and the prep teams." In her skyscraper heels, Lola flittered out of the room, many bells on her dress jingling as she left.

"So," Finnick said sliding over on the couch to sit next to me, his leg brushing up against mine.

"So what?" I said, crossing my legs in an attempt to reduce the blush on my face and my rapid heart beat.

"I have to say that your originality is lacking but," Finnick bobbed his head from side to side in fake thought. "It seemed like a good show." Obviously he was referring to himself, and even though that I tweaked his idea slightly; Finnick more than most people could see that I copied him.

"We all can't be the great and famous Finnick Odair. We need to get our inspiration from somewhere." I shrugged and there was a silence between us.

"Look, Annie I-" Finnick began to say before a delicate pair of hands landed on our shoulders.

"Dinner is served you too." Lola grinned and made her way to the dining room.

"What were you going to say to me Finnick?" His eyes flicked to mine and he stalked off towards the sleeping area.

"I'll go get Mags and Rio." He shouted to Lola who just shooed him away. I stood there stunned until Azula called me to sit next to her and talk over some outfit plans for the interview. I sighed and drew my eyes away from Finnick's retreating silhouette.

After dinner the scores were to be presented, and we all sat nervously in the living room, waiting for them to start. It was Caesar Flickerman, the host of the interviews that read them out every year and like every year he changed his hair colour, this year it was a very bright canary yellow. It went up in District order so the Careers went first. Satin and her District partner Atlas scoring impressive tens, with Maeve's District partner also scoring a ten, but Maeve herself scoring a nine. I knew that she was going to be heartily pissed off from that. Next there was Speck and her district partner that scored a six and a five. I gripped the chair with fearful anticipation of both Rio's score and mine.

"Now onto District Four." Caesar began, "Rio Ellwitt. With a score of ten." There was a cheer throughout our entire team but was quickly silenced by Mags as he read out my score. "And Annie Cresta. With a score of nine." I breathed out a sigh of relief and zoned out of hearing the other tribute scores. Since I got the same score as Maeve, I believed that maybe she would see me as less as a meal.

_But what if she gets angry that you got the same score as her and make her want to bludgeon your head with the mace that she always trained with? _

I gulped at the thought and I went a pale white.

"Are you alright Annie?" I turned to see Mags with her hand on my shoulder, which made me feel a lot better.

"I-I'm fine." I tried to smile reassuringly, but wobbled standing up. "Excuse me." I said and walked out of the living room.

I was on the balcony and expected Mags to be the one to find me, except it was Finnick.

"I thought that I'd find you in here." He chuckled and ended up standing next to me on the balcony, keeping quite of distance between us.

"You okay?" He asked, looking slightly concerned.

I nodded, but with the look of disbelief on his face I shook my head.

"What's up?" He said.

I took a deep breath and told him about the Maeve and Satin situation, but excluding the parts with him in it. He actually seemed like he cared with what I was saying and nodded whenever I spoke.

"Just don't let them get to you. No one can prepare for what's in the games so they will be just as clueless as you will be." He widened his eyes after just processing what he just said and put his face in his hands, and I think that I saw a little red. "Oh God. I didn't mean that Annie. What I-"

"It's okay." I said, looking down at my shoes and shrugged. "Besides, you got a nine in your private session and look at you now." I smiled at him, grateful for helping me and not calling me a weakling. A beautiful fragile smile moulded onto his tanned face, but not at me, towards the Capitol.

"Look at me now." He repeated slowly to himself. Next came a rasp of a knock on the door and Lola poked her head through.

"Come through you two. We are celebrating." She sang and waited for us to follow her. We did and walked back in silence, with Finnick and I stealing at least one glance at each other.


	7. Chapter 7

"Up straight." Lola commanded pushing up my back, "Chin up and smile." Lola beamed and made her way to the other side of my bedroom. "Now walk."

I took a deep breath and walked with a beaming smile on my face towards her, whose face seemed to glow brighter with every step that I took.

"Marvellous, Annie. Absolutely Marvellous." Lola breathed a sigh of relief. "I think we have it." She checked the practically illegible clock that was imbedded into one of her many pearl bracelets. "It only took two hours."

I breathed my own sigh of relief and hobbled my way over to the bed. I took off the bright orange skyscraper heels, fell back onto the soft covers and rubbed my sore feet.

"Oh, Annie I am so excited to see your interview." Lola chimed sitting on the end of the bed and patted my leg. "I think you will do great."

"I hope so. But they will probably have to wheel me on the stage." I huffed and rested on my elbows. "It only took Rio twenty minutes to get his walk down and he already has the confident smile going for him."

"That was why I sent him away early to work with Finnick and Mags on interview strategy." I sighed glumly and glanced at the token on my wrist. "Annie, the Gamemakers gave you a _nine_. That's a big enough reason for the sponsors to already like you." She smiled reassuringly to me, squeezing my leg. "And Mags, Finnick, Azula and Ivo will be there for support." I smiled back to her, and through the peacock feather eyelashes I noticed that one of her eyes were blue and the other was brown, when usually there were both brown.

"Are you wearing a blue contact Lola? Is that some new Capitol fashion trend?" I gave a small laugh but instantly silenced myself when I saw the frown on her face.

"No. I wasn't going out until the interviews so I decided to leave it until later."

There was a short pause.

"Imperfection isn't desirable in the Capitol. It's best to fix the broken things before the seeing eyes can heavy the burden." Lola rose from the bed and patted down her green metallic layered dress, her mismatched eyes distant in sad contemplation. "I'll go tell Finnick and Mags that you are ready." Lola walked out of the door and left me in silence.

_Is being perfect considered an angle?_

"So, Annie. What do you think of the Capitol?"

"Well, I think that it is great with, um-" I sighed and Finnick pinched the bridge between his eyes, obviously frustrated.

"I'm sorry Finnick, but the 'confident/alluring mermaid' that you described as an angle doesn't work for me."

"It has to work," He retorted. "It's worked for the past four years." I tried so hard to not roll my eyes.

_Yeah, and look where they have ended up._

"Finnick," Mags began from where she was sitting a few seats away from him. "Most of those other girls volunteered and had a confident and almost cocky attitude about them, which clearly did no favours." Mags moved to stand behind Finnick and pointed his shoulders towards me, which moved his face along with them. "What do you see when you look at Annie?"

Finnick brushed his eyes over me like he did on the train, but this time there was no look of judgement but nervousness in his eyes that was in some way more disarming and made a slight blush creep on my face. After a short while he just looked down shook his head.

"I-I don't know, Mags." Finnick mumbled quietly

"I see a naturally beautiful, sweet girl and that shouldn't be covered up by some cheap charade." Mags smiled to me and gripped onto his shoulders tighter. "Don't you agree, Finnick?" He gave another and almost inconspicuous look over my body and swallowed hard enough that I saw his adams apple move in his throat and a small smile grew on his face.

"Yeah." I smiled back to him but he looked to the floor and rubbed the back of his neck, a way for him to gain his confidence back. He looked back at me in the eyes and shrugged in a disinterested manner. "Sure, why not? Let's make the good girl persona a thing." He scraped his hand through his hair and cleared his throat. "So, Annie. What do you think of the Capitol?"

I saw a small smile on Azula's face that whilst I was getting my hair curled when I stuck out my hands towards to her, expecting gloves to be put on my calloused hands, and after adjusting the last glove on my hand, she was finally finished.

"I believe she's done." Azula gleamed and with a nod of completion from my prep team she stepped away from the full-length mirror in front of me.

My dress for the interview was strapless, and sea green that went down to my knees to match my eyes with a layer of wave patterned lace with and a long lacey right sleeve. I was wearing short gold taffeta gloves with matching gold heels. I was surprised to find that I looked elegant. My getup for the parade was more for show and to stand out rather than an official interview on national television. I always thought of myself to be pretty in a rather plain way, with my petite frame with no curves or assets at all, wild dark hair and rather large eyes that were shaded and exaggerated with gold and heavy black mascara. Azula and my team had really outdone themselves that time, to make me look _perfect_ whilst I was being displayed throughout of Panem. I collected my shaky hands in front of me, knotting them together like they were a piece of rope.

"Are you nervous darling?" Charmed asked and I nodded. "Don't be. The Capitol citizens are easily entertained, so smiling and giving the odd joke or two will make them like you."

_Don't forget the blood and deaths of children._

We meet Rio, Ivo and his crowd of stylists at the elevator; his hair was gelled back and wore a sapphire suit to match his own eyes. He nodded his head stiffly towards me and that was the only time that he acknowledged me before the interview.

All of the tributes sat in an arc and I was quite happy to be in District Four, which meant I got to go eighth. My eyes found Finnick, Mags and our designers; he looked so handsome with his hair in its usual styled scruffy manner, grey suit and sitting so tall. Mags waved subtlety to me and pointed me out to Finnick who at that point was talking to a woman dressed in a cocktail of gold and purple placing her hands all over him; who seemed interested in him, which made my entire skin shiver with my constricting heart. When he saw me, something weird happened. His whole stature seemed to weaken and his mouth opened slightly as he took me in. The woman next to Finnick glared at me and pestered him by poking him and laughing to get all of his attention back on her, it took her a few attempts but he turned back to her; his eyes occasionally skirting to meet mine.

The traditional music of the interviews began to play as Caesar embarked the stage, his canary hair and suit with black trimmings soaking up all of the lighting and attention.

"Ladies and gentleman! This is the 70th Hunger Games!" He began, with the audience clapping and cheering. "Let's get down to these tributes. If not, I believe my fabulous suit will start to get too used to the attention." The audience laughed, except for the mentors and tributes. The woman next to Finnick was in embarrassing hysterics.

_Easily entertained is an understatement._

After a few more jokes, he finally got down to business with the tributes; with the Careers practically spoke for what their outfits said about them. Satin acted ditzy and cheerful, which sent the audience wild, Maeve like the confident/alluring mermaid that I was supposed be. The audience loved them and the boys too so the standards were set incredibly high, but were immediately lowered by Speck who couldn't stop shaking, and I felt sorry for her. After her partner, Relay, who spoke with a quiet intensity until the three-minute buzzer went off, it was finally my turn.

"Now, ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you to Annie Cresta! The female tribute of District Four." The audience applauded with the same intensity as they did with all of the other tributes as I reached Caesar and sat in the plush chairs.

_Remember. Be the nice girl._

"How does it feel to be in the Capitol?" Caesar asked and I smiled bright to him.

"Words are unable to describe how I feel to be in the Capitol, Caesar."

This got some attention from the audience as they began to clap.

"Let's just call it greatly, stupefyingly magnificent for now." Caesar said. "We know that you got a nine at your personal assessment in front of the Gamemakers. Well done." The audience gave a polite applause. "But what is your greatest strength?"

_There is no way I am going to tell you in front of everyone._

"I wish I could tell you Caesar but," I shrugged playfully. "Then watching the Games wouldn't be fun." The audience laughed at this and Caesar chuckled. I glanced towards Finnick and Mags, she was clapping and he was nodding with approval. I hated the taste of those words on my mouth, _watching the Games wouldn't be fun_. They are anything but fun, but the audience couldn't know because they didn't have to live in constant fear of being a victim of sport or knowing that they were going to die, like I was.

"We, we wouldn't want that would we?" Caesar said to the audience and they laughed again, I smiled a full grin to them and a few seconds later the buzzer went off. "Oh I'm afraid that is all the time we have. Let us give it up, for Annie Cresta!" Caesar grabbed my hand and we stood up together as the audience cheered. "Lovely to meet you."

"Thank you Caesar." I said as I made my way back up to the other tributes.

"Now, give a warm round of applause to Rio Ellwitt!" The crowd cheered as he strode down the stairs and waved to them, girls whooping and screaming.

"Rio, are you prepared for the Games?" Rio chuckled.

"Of course I'm ready. I'm an animal, and an animal needs to hunt." Unlike the other Career boys that took the confident and charming approach, Rio just straight out animal, which the audience seemed to adore.

"So no alliances I presume?"

"Definitely no alliances." At this my face fell and I gripped onto my chair to prevent falling off. "They are all threats that I need to extinguish in order to win." Rio smiled smugly.

"What about the girl in your District?" Caesar questioned.

"Especially her."

Realisation hit me like a train. He didn't want me to do any combat training because I would be easier to kill. If I were easier to kill, he would be one step closer to winning. My eyes were brimming with tears and I glanced over to Finnick and Mags. Mags covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head and Finnick stared down at me with an emotionless expression and pointed to his face, indicating me to do the same. Luckily I did before the cameras fell on me, I acted as if I wasn't at all affected, when really a small part of me shattered.

Following the interviews I met up backstage with Mags and Lola. Rio and already went forward to the elevators and I wasn't surprised to find that Finnick was nowhere to be seen; he was probably with the woman from before. The elevator ride was silent, until it was broken by shouting coming from our apartment.

"What on earth?" Lola said as we all dashed to the door. Mags was the first to open it where she saw Finnick holding Rio up against the wall by his collar with anger in his eyes.

"If you're the one to make it out alive I swear I will personally kill you myself." That was all that I heard from Finnick as I made my way in to the apartment.

"Finnick!" Mags exclaimed in disgust and seeing the girls, Finnick dropped Rio immediately. Rio fixed his suit and stalked back to his room for the night, not even saying goodbye to his mentors. "What were you thinking? If you hurt that boy."

"Mags relax. I didn't hurt him, okay?" Finnick said, almost out of breath, obviously collapsing from his adrenaline rush.

There was a brief silence that consumed us all.

"I think that this is a better time than ever to say goodbye." Lola broke the silence and faced me. "Goodbye for now Annie." She smiled and gently hugged me. I wondered if it was compulsory for her to say 'for now' to give tributes a last glimmer of hope before they entered the arena.

Next it was Mags to hug me and kiss my cheek. "Good luck." She whispered in my ear and squeezed my shoulders and we both smiled at each other.

"Thank you, Mags." Mags nodded and headed with Lola towards the door and closed it leaving Finnick and me alone in the living area.

"So," Finnick said walking up to me with his hands in his pockets, his tone nothing but serious and my heart racing in my chest. "Sorry about Rio, being a jerk." I shook my head and looked down, trying to not show the hurt on my face.

"It's okay. It wasn't like I was going to win anyway-" Finnick lifted my chin with his hand with worry in his eyes.

"Annie don't say that. You don't need him to survive. You are smart and strong enough to do it on your own. When will you see that you are better than you think you are?" Finnick practically shouted that last part and the room froze in silence. Our tearful eyes looking at each other.

_If I am doing to die anyway._

In an instant I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulled myself on my toes and planted a soft kiss on his lips. It was only brief and lasted a second, and the look of shock in Finnick's eyes proved that it was a mistake, but I didn't care. It was the last time that I was going to see him. With even more speed than me he collected my cheeks in his hands and threw his lips onto mine. His lips were sweet and tasted like roses and I fell into his passionate kiss. I felt the tears on his cheeks and with a twinge in my heart; I scrunched his soft hair in my fists. When it was all over, all we did was stare into each other's eyes and breathed heavily. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but only another breath came out.

"What is it?" I breathed.

"Fight, Annie. I will be here doing _all _that I can to get you home." He rubbed his thumb on my cheek. "You have to win." With my mind still going from the kiss I silently nodded and he placed another swift kiss on my lips. "I will see you soon." He made his way to the door and opened it, took one last look at me and left, a smile growing on my lips. It wasn't my first kiss, but it was definitely the best.

The next morning was a blur, the hovercraft, getting my tracker and ending up in the catacombs of the arena. After eating my suggested large breakfast and putting on my gear of undergarments, cargo trousers, special grip boots, shirt, blue windbreaker and my hair was in a slick ponytail, just like at the Reaping. I sat alone with Azula, feeling like a mile away from me on the two-seat couch.

"You remind me of my daughter, Lita."

"Lita? As in-"

"Yes. Your prep team Lita." I had no idea, Azula had a much more naturalistic look whilst Lita's outfits seemed to get more outrageous day by day. I had no idea how old Azula was or how young Lita was under all of that fakery. The capitol never ceased to surprise me.

"Why is that?" I asked curiously.

"She let's people control her because she thinks that she is worth less than them." I recalled the times that she was constantly being chastised and ordered around by Charm and Tercius and the times when I let almost let Rio tell me how to train for the Games.

"Worth is only measured in your eyes and no one else's. Okay Annie?"

I nodded and we smiled back at each other.

The cold voice of a woman called for the tributes for launch, and that was when I visually started to shake. Azula and I made our way over to the glass tubes and stood in silence.

"Have you got your token?"

"Yes." I answered flashing her my wrist, the net tied on tightly.

"Good luck Annie. Show them how much you deserve to win." Surprisingly she embraced me and I back to her, I didn't know if it was because I reminded her of her own daughter or something else entirely, stylists should never really get close to their tributes. "Put those hard and ugly hands to good use." She whispered in my ear and I giggled slightly.

I stepped into the tube, the glass door closing in front of me. I breathed in deep as the platform started to rise, and before I knew it I was on a cloudy and rocky terrain with twenty-three other children around me.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Claudius Templesmith announced, " Let the Seventieth Hunger Games begin!"

**Has anyone else seen the 'Burn' trailer yet? My heart sank with Peeta but burned with rage that there was NO ODESTA DAMN IT! No, I loved it. This is the last time I'll post before I go into hiatus for a few weeks due to reasons explained at the end of Chapter Two. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review because they are all deeply appreciated! :) **


	8. Chapter 8

_60. 59. 58. 57. 56._

As the countdown began I started to survey the area. There was a large plain of rock that expands twenty feet around the Cornucopia, next was a rim of thick woodland trees and then large mountains that finished the bowl of the arena. I also noticed that directly in front of me was a large concrete wall that connected the two mountain ranges to complete the bowl, I knew that it was a dam and where there was a dam there was water. That was where I had to go.

_15. 14. 13. 12._

As I expected, the Careers looked ready to kill, harsh eyes glaring at the Cornucopia, practically licking their lips for their first taste of blood whilst the others tried to look intimidating or just downright terrified. I was thankful that I couldn't see Rio anywhere and that he couldn't see me shaking.

_5. 4. 3. 2. 1._

I whispered a silent prayer. The gong sounded and I began to run. There was nothing for me in the Cornucopia that I had much skill in using so I decided to grab one of the green packs off of the ground, it was probably suicide but I had to cut through the middle to get to the water, going around would take too long and I would probably run into the other tributes. Halfway to the Cornucopia I seized the pack and dodged around the other tributes. The blood was nothing that I had ever seen before, it ran down the rocks like a thick stream from the dead tributes and the Careers wore it proudly like salt water on the lips of a newlywed District Four couple, the sight made me ill and want to throw up, but I had to keep moving. A smile tinted my lips, as I was only five feet away from the trees, into safety. My legs ached along with my lungs and my heart was pounding, I kept pushing myself, until I felt a sharp pain in the back of my leg.

I tumbled to the ground and scraped my hands and I turned back to see a small knife sticking deeply in the back of my right calf. I turned back and there was a girl from District 9 standing only a feet behind me, I remembered that she was better than I was at the knife throwing and I knew that this was going to be my end. With ugly determination in her eyes she started her descent on me; I was ready to die. Except that never happened, her pale green windbreaker turned a dark shade of red as a spear flew through her chest and she collapsed, silent and not breathing. My eyes grew wide with fear, as it was Rio standing behind her; and he was coming for me. I tried to run but my leg wouldn't let me and I fell again and I squeezed tears away from my eyes. One of his large arms encircled my waist as he picked me up and threw me on his shoulder and started running way from the Blood Bath into the trees.

I thrashed, screamed and kicked for a good twenty minutes before he released me and pushed me to the hard forest ground. His left hand bore his bloody spear and I slowly began to edge away from him, my fearful eyes never leaving his steady gaze. He probably wanted to kill me himself, in private to show the full force of his brutality. It was sick, but I thought it to be true.

What surprised me was that instead, he dropped his spear and fell to the floor, obviously exhausted.

"S-stay away from me." I demanded with my shaky voice.

After a few deep breaths he finally spoke.

"I don't want to hurt you." He said bluntly, his eyes not leaving mine.

"You could have fooled me last night." I retorted, my voice gaining some power.

"That was just for show. To gain more sponsors. Mags said that a few of them pay even before the Games start," He shrugged. "It just seemed like the best way."

"H-how many people did you kill?"

Rio dropped his eyes to his spear. "Two. Nine girl and Seven boy." Rio paused, with me just realising that that boy was only twelve years old. "What in the actually hell were you doing running _through _the Blood Bath?" His voice was harsh growl, if we weren't in danger of being found, I suspected that he would have screamed at me. "Thank God I was there or you would have been the dead one. It was brave but utterly stupid!"

There was a pause.

"I had to get to water."

His eyes began to light up. "What, water?" I realised that his podium was probably facing away from the dam.

"I saw a dam, that was why I headed this way." I tried to pick myself off the floor. "We have to go quickly." I winced from the pain as I collapsed; I could barely move my legg.

"Not with you like that we can't." Rio stood back up and grabbed his spear, "We have to find a safe spot for you to rest whilst we-" Rio couldn't finish his sentence due to the firing of cannons. We went silent as we carefully listened for them. The first two that I heard, I immediately thought of Rio's own kills, the blood on his clothes the evidence. It ended at nine and we stayed silent.

"Let's go." Rio said after a few moments, offering me my hand, which I was hesitant to take. Frustration flashed in his eyes. "Look. The more time we waste, the more and more that cut of yours is going to get infected, which may lead you to dying and I have already saved your life. So. Trust. Me." I knew he was right. I had to trust him. I couldn't survive on my own. This time he didn't carry me, but wrapped my left arm around his shoulder and helped me hobble.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

"Because I can't survive on my own." He answered flatly.

It was thirty minutes of silence and slow walking before we found a clearing of trees that encircled a small dip in the ground.

"This will have to do." Rio said as he carefully helped me down into the ground, I looked at my clothes and I was covered in blood, I didn't say anything and acted like I didn't notice, when really my breakfast was turning sour in my stomach. I had no idea what he had in mind, but it had something to do with fire as he was collecting sticks. It was only late afternoon so it would be a small while before it would turn dark so there was nothing that noticeable about lighting a fire now.

A few minutes later I had to get the fire started, due to Rio not being able to and it crackled as we sat silently.

"May I?" Rio said nodding towards the pack on my back. I nodded silently as I passed it to him and he began to root through it.

"Okay. One blanket. Ten crackers. Wire. Iodine drops. Alcohol rubs. Two bota bags!" Like an animal, with hunger and excitement in his eyes he tore off the lid of the bota bag and held it to his mouth, he swore quietly as he found that it was empty and placed it back in the pack. He grabbed a relatively thin stick from the pile for the fire and pointed it at me. I jumped and dragged myself backwards. Rio rolled his eyes.

"You need to bite it."

"Why?"

"To stop you from screaming."

"_What_?" I cried and scurried backwards and winced as the knife dug deeper into my leg.

"We need to take that knife out." He was right and I nodded shyly, scooting forward again. Rio put the stick in my mouth and I bit down on it.

"Ready?" I breathed in deep through my nose and nodded. "3. 2. 1."

With one strong and painful pull he removed the knife from my leg and my teeth sunk into the stick to repress a scream. Rio looked at me with a frown and held the all bloody knife in his hand. We both looked down at it and a three-inch wound was left behind.

"I don't think it hit any muscle."

"At least you have a weapon now." Rio chuckled slightly, but stopped when he saw my glare. "Now we need to cauterize it." He said with a serious tone again.

I spat the stick to the ground. "But won't Finnick and Mags send us supplies from the sponsors?" I said with my voice ragged and shaky.

"Annie, be realistic. There is no special cream for this kind of stuff. We either fix it now, you die from infection or we amputate later. Frankly the first is the least messy and I don't want you bitching then dying on me. What do you want?" He was right. Even if there were something that the sponsors could do, our mentors would have sent them by now, maybe we didn't have any sponsors.

We waited for a while and ate a cracker each whilst Rio's disinfected spearhead heated up in the fire and I disinfected my wound and the scrapes on my hand. I couldn't believe that this already happened to me, I knew that I would die but I thought that I could get through the first day at least.

"The sun is setting, we should probably get this done soon or we will get spotted."

"Just do it." I sighed.

Once again he gently held my leg and breathed in himself.

"Ready?" I grabbed the stick again and nodded. "3. 2. 1."

Rio stuck the hot metal in my leg and I bit down on the stick as hard as I could. The pain was excruciating as Rio burned my open wound. I clutched the ground between my hands and tears gathered in my eyes, I tried so hard not to cry and show weakness to the on looking sponsors. If we didn't have any already we had to get some in someway, showing no weakness was one of them. After thirty second, my whole body began to shake; I tasted bile in my mouth and felt like I was burning alive. Rio gritted his own teeth with a pained expression on his face as he moved the blade down my calf. I had to hold on. Show no weakness. Show no…

I passed out after one minute.

**Did you guys get my special cream on the leg joke from THG movie? I hope that I also didn't go too overboard with the violence. Please like and review, more is coming soon. Any feedback is deeply appreciated. :) **


	9. Chapter 9

The light from the sun made an orange imprint on my eyelids and forced me to wake. I tried to see the damage done on my leg, but I was encased in something. I withheld a scream as I struggled free and tumbled in the fire ashes. That was when I got a real look at it. It was just the green blanket from the pack, covered in various leaves and dirt. I steadied my harsh breathing. I found some leaves my hair and I checked my reflection in the knife that hid itself under the blanket. Patches of face and neck was covered in dirt, but two lines down from my eyes were clean. I had no idea what happened after I passed out. I mentally slapped myself for remembering that.

_Great way in showing the sponsors how weak you are, Annie._

I scoped around and saw that Rio and his spear were missing, but not the pack that was half buried under the dry earth. I dug it out and searched the contents. Three crackers and a bota bag were missing. A sharp crack sounded from behind me, I twisted and held my shaky hand and knife out. I found Rio, with a tired look on his face. I told myself that I could have thrown the knife, but in reality I knew I couldn't, not yet anyway.

"Relax." He said walking towards me with his hands in the air. "I see that you are up and moving. How's the leg?"

I hadn't even noticed it. I pulled up my trousers and found a long bright red and night black scar on the back of my thigh. I knew that it was never going to fade, but at least it wouldn't get infected.

I shrugged. "It's fine."

"That's good." Rio gave a relieved smile. "Oh and uh, sorry about the…dirt and stuff. It was the only type of camouflage that I could think of."

I shook my head.

"What…happened last night? After, you know." I tried to not repeat it for the cameras.

"Another cannon fired." Ten dead tributes. "And you missed the show of the fallen."

"Any of the-"

"The Careers are still alive." He interrupted, like he just read my mind.

"_The Careers are still alive."_ I gave shaky nod. Only fourteen to go. When would they kill us?

"We should probably get moving. Staying in the same place for too long is risky."

"You're right." I agreed. Rio shook off the blanket and put it in the pack whilst I decided to put the knife in my belt, under my coat. Rio didn't see where I put it; some part of me still didn't trust him.

We headed into the general direction of the dam and the arena just slightly began to tilt up hill. Rio looked distracted and was searching the scenery around him. I saw the bota bag on his side.

"Did you find any water?" I asked.

He shook his head and yawned. It was a big yawn.

"Did you stay up all night?"

"Well someone had to watch your unconscious self." He smiled to me. This made my opinion of him shift slightly. He could have just not finished the job, run off with the supplies and either kill me or let the Careers find me. I smiled back to him. I still wasn't going to show him the knife.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Just return the favour tonight okay?" If I had to be honest, I was a little scared to but I agreed anyway.

We walked for an hour before Rio's dishevelled face lit up.

"There!" he pointed to a bush. I was a little confused but went to it. Inside I saw a dead rabbit in hand. It wasn't gutted or cleaned, just a normal dead rabbit with a hole through its side, lying on a net of leaves.

"I found a rabbit hole here somewhere. And there were a few but" Rio shrugged, "When you only have a spear and no clue how to set snares, it is hard to hunt anything. Especially with forest bastards being so quick." I laughed at this. "I didn't want to gut it until we found it again. You hungry?"

My growling stomach gave the perfect response.

We set up a shrubbery barrier and camped out for the night. I made the fire and Rio cleaned and cooked the rabbit. I was never in the kitchen when my mother made dinner; I didn't want to see the blood or innards. But looking at it now was different, I was hungry so my mind blotted out the mess and focused on the meat. Rio was the same, completely unnerved but looked at the blood as if he wanted to consume it as water. My throat was scratchy and my tongue was dry, I had to find water.

"How long will it take to cook?"

"I am not entirely sure. Maybe thirty minutes?" I looked up and saw that the sun was in the middle of the sky. So I guessed that the time was noon.

"Why?" He asked.

"I am going to find water." I answered and began to turn away.

"On your own?!" Rio's eyes widened in alarm.

"Rio. We need food to eat and water to drink. And we already have food, so water is the most important, we have to find it soon before he dehydrate and pass out."

He paused, obviously knowing that I was right.

"Fine. But do you have your knife?"

I nodded and walked away.

"Wait!" Rio practically yelled.

"What!" I quietly barked back. He pointed to the sky and I followed his finger to a silent silver parachute descending to the floor. In an instant I attacked it and found a two-litre bottle of water attached to it. I took it off the strings and ran towards Rio. An open smile consumed face.

"Oh my God!" He laughed and took the bottle off me. I thought that he was going to drink from it, but instead he filled up his bota bag and handed it to me. I nodded thanks and did the same, thankful for the sound of trickling water.

Not even the sound of three cannons could stop me from smiling.

There was still some in the bottle but we decided to save it for later. We sat, ate and sipped the water. Pleased with our bounty.

"Thank you Mags and Finnick." Rio said and raised his bota bag in the air. I thought back to the last time I saw him.

"_I will be here doing _all_ that I can to get you home."_

_Thank you Finnick._

I set up a few snares and we headed off again. It was another two hours and another cannon before our trail rose to a twenty degree angle and the ground started to turn to rock again as a the trees slowly disappeared. Finally we were faced with a ledge that stretched thirty metres and was no more than two metres thick; on one side there was the mountains, and the other overlooked the Cornucopia and the rest of the arena. It was a long way down.

"Have we been walking for that long?" I asked.

"Probably the Game Makers changing the arena." Rio shrugged. "It just happens sometimes. Be careful."

We only made five steps before we were ambushed.

**END OF CHAPTER NINE**

**(just kidding)**

Before we could react, four bodies plunged from the air and pushed us to the ground. They forced us onto our knees and made us overlook the edge. I gulped with fear.

"Look what we have here." The male voice of District One teased from behind Rio.

"Nice work Atlas." I moved my eyes to the ground and saw the mace on the floor.

"Hey, I helped too!" The other male Career whined, he seemed around the same age as me because he didn't hold me tight enough to hurt me, and his voice was higher than Atlas'.

"Yes, yes well done Pyronn. You have the weak girl." Satin groaned obviously annoyed with him.

"What are we going to do with them?" Atlas asked.

"Kill them of course." Maeve laughed maniacally and came down to my ear. "Finnick can't help you now Four."

In my fear and my will to live kicking in, I turned my head to see Pyronn's hand on my shoulder. With all of the strength I could, I bit down on his fingers and even drew some blood.

"Ow! The stupid bitch bit me!" Pyronn yelled and drew his hands away. I looked back to Rio and he did something crazy. Butting me with his shoulder I screamed as I toppled over the edge.

A cannon fired. But it wasn't for me.

I grabbed an imbedded rock just in time below the overhanging ledge. My supplies were gone and the rock I was clinging onto was as sharp as glass on my already scraped palms, but my calloused fingers could barely feel a thing. I skirted my eyes back down to the ground and sucked in a breath, I was so far from the ground and I looked back up to the Careers, who thankfully couldn't see me.

"That makes fifteen fallen. I guess Cresta is dead." Maeve shrugged. "Now what to do with Mr Ellwitt?" I saw the whole scene play out in front of me. Atlas and Pyronn were too strong together for Rio to move and I watched as the girls taunted, punched and spat on him for a few minutes until Satin came out with an axe.

_No!_

Rio took one look at me with a sad smile and tears in his eyes and nodded, but I didn't have enough time to return the gesture. With one clean sweep, Rio's head was gone and it fell past me to the ground. His blue eyes almost seemed to find mine and I repressed a scream. I nearly lost my grip as the cannon fired.

"Sixteen." Atlas said wiping his bloody hands on his trousers. "Only eight to go."

"Just a second." Maeve said. In an instant she whipped her mace off the ground and swung into Pyronn's head. It crushed on impact and he fell off the ledge as well. His face was too beaten in to see his eyes. Another cannon sounded.

"Sorry. He was just really annoying."

They all started laughing.

_Monsters. _I thought. _Sick. Sadistic. Monstrous. Animals._

"You know, the Hovercraft might take Annie's body, but not her supplies. Let's see what she has." Atlas suggested.

"Great idea!" Satin giggled and off they went.

My hands trembled as I climbed back onto the ledge; I got on all fours and shook like a wet animal. I heaved up the rabbit until only acidic bile was left and began to cry. I pulled my hair and started to rock back and forth, back and forth. I only noticed Rio's body after my eyes weren't so full of tears. I had to get away. I took off to the other side of the ledge and sprinted the way down.

After half an hour of flat out running I breathlessly fell to the ground and vomited again, along with more tears in my eyes.

"Psst." I heard from above me.

I curled up into a ball and placed my hands over my ears.

"I am not a Career! Please help." I knew that voice from somewhere. It was Speck Crommel with her upside down face redder than her hair and the blood on her ankle that was caught in a snare. _My _snare_._

"Please help! I just need to find Relay. Do you have a knife?"

I nodded silently and I reached for it in my belt. I stopped as I heard the cheering of familiar voices. My eyes diluted from fear. I took one last look at Speck's pleading eyes and started to run away.

"Please don't leave!" Speck screamed. "Help!" Her cry for help turned into a scream of terror, another cannon fired but I kept running. I was the one that killed her; if I hadn't set that snare or helped her get out of it she probably would be still alive. But I didn't. I killed her.

I ran. I kept on running. I tripped on a rock and flew to the ground. My face and hands getting scraped and my clothes ripped on the jagged surface as I fell, I was glad that I didn't hit my head. In front of me there was a small cave that would fit at least fit me twice inside of it. I scrambled to find some shrubbery and placed it in front of my hiding spot.

I wept my eyes out, rocked and blocked my ears to try to stop the sounds of their laughter. The sound of the axe swinging through the air. The sound of Rio's tearing skin. Speck's screams of terror. Cannons. Again and again these awful sounds played on loop in my brain and there was nothing that I could do to stop them. I knocked my head against the side of the small cave until I fell asleep, or knocked myself out. I couldn't tell.

**Sorry that this chapter was quite violent and gory. But I believe that this chapter required it, and if you don't like it. Girl, what are you doing reading the Hunger Games? I still hoped you enjoyed it; I finished it at 12:30 am so sorry if the quality is a little bad. Please review. All comments and criticisms are deeply appreciated. **


	10. Chapter 10

_Cold liquid needles injected themselves into my body, dragging me underwater and sharp currents rung my neck as I was pulled further and further downwards. My lungs burned for air and I took a quick gasp. It tasted of blood. I screamed with fear and two people seemed to step over me. One had multiple cut wounds over its body with now blood soaked orange pigtails and cold black eyes. Speck. The other had its head under its arm with its own eyes black and unforgiving._

"_You killed me." Speck said bluntly. I shook my head furiously._

No…

"_I saved you Annie. Why didn't you help me?" Rio asked, blood pouring from the lips of his severed head as he spoke._

No. No. No. No_. _

_I tried to fight against the water but the more I struggled the more I sank._

"_Accept it Annie."_

I gasped myself awake, covered in sweat and completely disorientated and lost. I suddenly remembered everything and coughed up more bile into my cut up hands. It burned. I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand and tried to take tiny sips of water from my bota bag. I finished it off and rested my back against the small cave wall, the light from my shrubbery door allowing small fractures of light in. I had no idea how long I had been asleep for, but apart of me didn't want to wake up.

"_Accept it Annie."_

I trembled furiously and blocked my hands over my ears and started to rock back and forth. It was my fault. My fault they were dead. I killed them. I killed them.

It was hours before I heard a sound outside of the cave. I froze in place and tried so hard to not have a panic attack. Yet, the sound was brief and too light to be a footstep. I peered through a gap and saw a large picnic basket, my eyes lightened with delight when I saw the angel white parachute attached to it. I greedily snatched the basket into my hovel and eagerly began to root through it. Inside was cheese, District Four bread, three large bottles of water, a sleeping bag, medical wipes and…sleeping medication. My trembling arms gripped the basket tight as I muttered over and over again.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you."

After I cleaned and covered my scrapes I slowly began to eat the seaweed bread and cheese, I had no idea how hungry I was until I took the first bite into it. It completely baffled me how I was able to get sponsors, after the pathetic show that I had been putting on for them. Rio must have gotten them early on and Finnick and Mags must have saved them for a specific time for-

The blast of a cannon interrupted my thoughts and pushed my mind back to the thought Rio and Pyronn falling from the ledge. Again and again it played in my head. And no matter how hard I blocked my ears, scraped my nails into my skin or the number of tears I shed I couldn't get the images to stop, until an idea popped into my head.

I reached for the sleeping pills and took the daily guideline of two. The label said that I had to wait three minutes before it took affect but my eyes were so drawn to the bright orange capsules. I was going to die anyway. It would be better for me to go peacefully in my sleep than to die a cruel death. I took a deep breath and grabbed a handful. What was the point of last words? They mean nothing in the games.

"_Fight, Annie."_

It was the voice of Finnick that stopped me from taking the seven capsules in my hand. I snapped out of it and threw them on the ground. How could I have thought like that? I looked around the cave for any cameras; Finnick was probably watching me right now. Or wasn't, the Careers were probably doing something more interesting than I was, or he was either with another Capitol woman. All the negative thoughts slowly escaped my head, as my eyelids grew heavier, I collected myself in the sleeping bag and dreamt an empty nightmare.

It had been three days and not a single cannon fired, the audience must have started to become bored, and there was only five tributes left. Me, I knew that the rest of the Careers were still out there and another was still alive. Could it have been Relay? Was he waiting for Speck? Did he know that I had left her for dead? The thoughts swamped my mind again and the day replayed in my mind for the fiftieth time. I had been slipping in and out of consciousness still huddled in my small sanctuary, and I had gotten five more baskets of supplies. The gifts must have gotten really expensive and I had no idea how people where still interested in me.

The times that I didn't eat or have pill sleeps; were the times that my hands stayed firmly against my ears in an attempt to block out the constant noises. I gave up on tying knots a while ago, my shaky hands could barely hold it in my hands, and it was my only anchor to the outside world. My fingernails and the hair by my ears were coated in dry blood from all of the scratching of my ears. From my reflection in the water bottle I could see my eyes were puffy red, I wiped the dirt off my face a few days ago but I could still see patches that I wasn't bothered to wash off. Appearances and impressing people didn't matter to me anymore; I had given up on everything but my small fraction of will to live.

A few hours went by of sobbing before a few pebbles fell on my head. There was a deep shudder and growl from the cave and I scrambled to my knees. I bolted out of the opening and immediately collapsed to the floor. It didn't surprise me that my legs were just as less useless as I was, however I was surprised by my surroundings. _Everything_ was bare, there was no longer and trees and the entire landscape were rolling rocks. The foreign brightness of the sun almost blinded me as I hid my eyes with my hand and tried at find at least _something_ that wasn't just rock.

But I did find something. At first it was quite hard to see from where I was standing. I saw the cracks. Then the crumbling wall. Then the water. Because the dam was breaking, and I had nowhere to go.


	11. Chapter 11

It was coming from my left. I picked myself off from the floor and forced my legs to remember how to run again, but it was pointless. I was floundering around like a fish out of water, but the water wasn't where I wanted to go. It got hold of me in a matter of a minute before I was consumed by its great waves and tossed around like ragdoll. With one kick I flew upwards and emerged to the surface, the water was even colder than my dreams and it seemed like it was reaching into my lungs and stealing my breath away. The over saltiness of the water stung my eyes as I tried to rub them clean, but that was when I didn't see the big wave.

Once again I was flailing in the water, and with every attempt I tried to swim back to the surface, I was beaten by another wave.

_This is it. I am going to die._

I couldn't hold my breath any longer; the world grew fuzzier and darker as I sank lower and lower. It was a lot more peaceful than my nightmares. Everything was calm and quiet. Drowning wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I even saw my life before my eyes.

"_Daddy, what if I drown?" I said shyly knotting my fingers together and standing by the oceans edge. I was five years old and still didn't know how to swim._

_My father chuckled. "You'll be fine, Annie." _

"_But, what if there is a shark?"_

"_I'm scarier than anything you can find in this ocean." That was a lie, he was so sweet and of course he said it to make me feel better. "Just run in. I'll help you."_

_I nodded, took a deep breath and sprinted into his arms._

Next was my reaping day, the train journey and the parade. Next was Finnick and I's kiss. I remembered it perfectly; I also remembered the look of horror in his eyes when it was over.

"_You have to win."_

I willed my eyes to open and saw the clear water above. I knew that I had one chance for air and that was it. I had to win, for my parents, my District, for everything. With my last ounce of energy I kicked down hard at the water and sucked in the biggest breath that my lungs could take when I burst through to the surface. I sputtered and coughed but kept my legs moving to help me stay afloat. Though that proved to be a challenge. The waves just would not stop coming and I had to keep on swimming, the only relief I had was when small currents would slowly drag me along, until I get drawn into the crest of a wave. This happened multiple times, it got to the point when I feared any sort of movement in the water. Even the water itself.

I had no idea how long I was swimming for, but I knew it was somewhere between a day and a half. It was cannon after cannon until I realised that there was only two left. My breaths got shallower as my lungs filled with more water and my limbs shook with every move that I made. I had three rules for survival.

_Head up. Head up._

Most of the time I found it a struggle to stay on the surface for more than a mere minute.

_Live in the present._

Sometimes the flashback would come back and each time I had to submerge myself for them to go away, which kind of went against my first rule.

_Swim._

I just had to keep moving, and swimming and-

My thoughts were cut off by the sudden pull of the water under my legs. I tried to swim away but this was a lot stronger than any other current I faced before, and my legs were too weak to fight against it. It felt like my legs were kicking through air and getting me absolutely nowhere. With a heavy sigh I let go, waiting for me for the other person to die first.

What I thought was a current, was much worse than that. It started to turn slowly and it wasn't until when it started spinning faster when I realised that I was in a whirlpool.

With newfound adrenaline in my body I kicked and scraped at the water to set me free from my awful fate. There were no whirlpools in District Four, so I had no idea what to do with one. My breathing got harder as my legs slowly began to fail on me, I pleaded for them to work but I was too distracted by being pulled down under.

A found a pair of disastrously familiar green eyes glaring at me. Maeve started clawing at my small legs to pull me deeper and I unwillingly complied. The spinning water was so disorientating that I could barely see her pale hands wrap around my delicate throat, making it twice as easy for her to drown me. Her feral eyes never left mine as she was tightening her grip. I began to see black and wide spots consume my vision as my arms went limp at my sides. That was the moment when my hand brushed the knife in my belt.

With the final push of my energy, I swiped the knife and impaled it into the side of her throat. Then her elbow. Then her face. Her gripped _finally_ loosened as the water turned cloudy red. I kicked her body to use it as a tool to bring me to the surface, and when I broke through, I heard the last cannon fire.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victor of the Seventieth Huger Games, Annie Cresta! I give you – the tribute of District Four." Claudius Templesmith announced.

_It's over?! Thank God._

I released a sigh of relief and floated on the surface of the red water, trying to get my breathing back under control and tears of joy trickled down my face as I saw the hovercraft emerge from the sky. A ladder was released from it and I grabbed hold as it brought me up to the hovercraft.

I was finally pulled up from the ladder and laid on the floor. Frantic doctors fussing over my body as my eyes slowly began to close. I was so exhausted that I couldn't help it.

_I won._

"_Speck! No. I'm so sorry." I begged to the reflection in the pool of water that I was standing in. A bloody scream erupted from her lips as her reflection painfully contorted itself into Rio, carrying his head like before._

"_Rio! I'm sorry." I cried and blocked my eyes from the reflections. I screamed and screamed. _

My wild eyes flew open and I was shocked by my surroundings. I was in a sterile white room, I noticed that I had some restraints removed from my body, but I saw a drip in my arm, a bottle of water and a glass by my bed. I licked my dry lips with anticipation and leapt to the water. The unsalted water was heaven and I finished the entire bottle in a minute, so I was standing by my bed in the silent sterile white room and for the first time in a while, I felt at peace.

I heard the door open before I turned around to see who opened it, but I didn't bother to look. Before I knew it, I grabbed the bottleneck and smashed it against the side of the table and pointed it towards the intruder. My eyes went wide.

It was Finnick. He stood still at the other side of the room, raising his shaky hands in surrender, his own eyes glistening with tears.

"Annie." He whispered.

"F-Finnick." I stuttered and glanced downwards. Diamond glass stung my hands and feet and ruby red blood seeped through the wounds. My find fled to the memory of Rio, Pyronn, Speck and Maeve. The blood. I had killed three.

I dropped the bottle and pressed my bloody hands to my ears, realising a primal sound of sobbing and screaming. In an instant Finnick had wrapped my body in his arms and sat us down on the bed, I relaxed into his arms and that moment an Avox boy walked in.

"Get out!" Finnick shouted, which made me jump. The Avox gulped, left the tray of food on the floor by the door and rushed out.

My fat tears were relentless and my entire body shook in his arms. Finnick just sat there and allowed me to cry into him, knowing what I had been through.

"What have they done to you?" He murmured as he stroked my hair.

_They broke me beyond repair._

**Writing an entire chapter with only description is quite difficult, I hope that it's okay. By the time that I will publish it I will be on Christmas break, which I am very excited about. Look out for more of my stuff soon, (but I am not specifying c;). Reviews and criticisms are deeply appreciated.**


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